The Galactic Clash
by Ixidor Alucard
Summary: A powerful force is causing portals between different worlds to open. Warriors like Cloud, Vincent, Seifer, Squall, Sora, and Riku battle it out in the greatest clash the universe has ever seen. But soon they'll have to team up to face the real enemy.
1. Cloud's Arrival

Cloud sprinted through the jungle, panting heavily. He had no idea what had happened, or even where he _was..._but the smartest thing to do would be to get out of this jungle, then he could look for a town or something... A swarm of Bite Bugs were right on him, and he slashed his way past a few and kept running.

Hopefully he could make it out alive.

A day ago, he was riding on his bike, thinking about how boring his life had become. After the final battle with Kadaj or Sephiroth, Cloud wasn't sure what to call him, his group of friends had dispersed once again. Oh, they called, sure...but Cloud never liked talking on the phone. He couldn't help thinking that as long as the world was safe, he and his friends wouldn't be spending a lot of time together.

He had been riding on through the desert when he had seen it: A blurred image of what Cloud could only describe as a flying castle. It was like nothing Cloud had ever seen; the blue-green fortress was flying through the desert, a giant ring rotating on its bottom. Cloud doubted even Cid could design something so incredible. But as Cloud observed it, he couldn't help feeling that something about it, it's very _prescence,_was very, very wrong. He looked closely at it and saw it blur, as though it was fading in and out of reality.

It flew closer.

The tires of Cloud's bike screeched across the sand as he tried to get away from it; something about it told him it was dangerous, he had to get as far away from it as possible...But he was too late. The fortress overtook him, and he fell into the depths of the vortex surrounding it.

The next thing he knew, he was in this damned jungle. He barely had time to get up when a swarm of disgusting insects he had never seen before came out of the tree canopies and attacked. He saw sky, which meant the trees were thinning. He would be out soon...

He ran out of the jungle, and looked around quickly. He saw a town to the north, not too far away. Hoping the monsters wouldn't follow him into town, he ran there as fast as he could. His hopes were realized when he noticed that the monsters stopped chasing him once he had made it into the town. He could smell the faint, salty breeze that could only come from the sea. He saw a sign hanging over his head.

"Welcome to Balamb."

Well, he wasn't in Midgar anymore...


	2. Tifa and Vincent's Departure

Cloud frowned. What kind of place was Balamb? He had never heard of it…He looked around. It seemed like a peaceful enough place. He sheathed his sword. He would have wiped out the monsters with any kind of materia, but his materia didn't work here for some reason. As he walked down the street, he noticed it wasn't like Midgar at all. No pollution, small homes...Cloud was shocked to realize that this place seemed to have no Lifestream. He looked around. By the Planet, how could this place survive without a Lifestream? He bitterly came to the conclusion he wasn't home anymore, that he had to have entered another world...

"Hey, you!" a boy, not more than 18, ran up to Cloud.

Cloud raised an eyebrow. The boy looked strange, to say the least. He had blond hair, like Cloud, but the similarities stopped there. He had a black tattoo over the side of his face, and he wore baggy shorts that went up almost to his chest, with a short black shirt and a red and blue jacket covering his forearms, and he had on bright red gloves. He was well built, and muscles rippled all over his arms.

Cloud was about to unsheath his sword when the boy said, "Hey, all SeeDs were supposed to be back in Garden five minutes ago! If you don't get on now, we'll leave without you!" he pointed towards the pier, where Cloud could see the flying castle he had encountered before in the distance.

This was his chance! This Garden, whatever it was, might be his way home. Worth a shot...

"Sorry," said Cloud, "I'm...new..."

Zell eyed Cloud suspiciously. "New? I don't remember hearing about any transfers..."

"Oh yeah, I just transferred here," said Cloud hastily, making it up as he went along, "I'm from..." he looked around frantically, finally choosing a name he read on the Train Station, "Galbadia Garden."

Zell put a hand through his own hair and sighed. "Galbadia Garden, huh? The guys never tell me anything anymore..." he looked at Cloud and said, "Well, come on, we'd better get going, we're leaving soon."

**Meanwhile**

Squall Leonhart wasn't in love with the leadership role he had been cast in. Being headmaster of Balamb Garden was a full-time job, and most of its duties were boring as hell. It left him with almost no time for training, and he barely got to see his friends anymore. Luckily, Rinoa had moved in with him, so he got to go home to her every night. The tall, brown-haired man looked at a picture of him and his friends. He promised himself to take them all somewhere this weekend. They'll all just get on the Ragnarok and just go somewhere, maybe Edea's orphanage. His private intercom buzzed and Xu's voice rang out, informing him that Zell wanted to see him. Squall just said "Send him in," and Zell came in with a blond, spiky-haired man Squall had never seen before. Squall spoke first, asking briskly,

"What is it, Zell?" Zell put a hand through his hair.

"This is Cloud Strife, a transfer student from Galbadia Garden," Zell began, "And I came to you to verify..."

"You know that's a job for Quistis, she's in charge of incoming students." Squall interrupted. Honestly, why would Zell waste his time with this?

Zell looked at Cloud and asked him, "Cloud, you mind if I talk to the headmaster alone?" Cloud only nodded and walked out of the room. _Not the most outgoing guy,_ Squall thought, _but I was like that too, so I guess I can relate_.

Zell turned to face Squall and talked, in a lower voice than usual, "Listen, man, I'm not so sure about this guy. I mean, he looks like a SeeD, yeah, but when I found him he looked totally lost. Not to mention the fact that he has no Garden ID."

Squall blinked. "He doesn't have a Garden ID?"

"That's what I said", replied Zell, "He's got no ID and he doesn't show up on the database as a SeeD or a cadet."

Squall put a hand to his forehead. He had too many things to do, he couldn't get involved with something like this. What if it was just a glitch in the database? But, what if Cloud Strife was a spy, an enemy of Garden? However...

"He doesn't seem to be much of a threat, and I've got too many issues to deal with right now. Laguna wants a SeeD task force assigned specifically for the New Space Station, Headmaster Martine has got Galbadia Garden mobile again...so one mysterious SeeD you can handle, right Zell?"

Zell only saluted, and Squall nodded. "Give him a room and keep an eye on him, if anything seems odd just come to me."

**Elsewhere**

Vincent Valentine wasn't the best houseguest. He had entered the house quickly and after locking the door and closing the curtains on all the windows, he asked where Cloud was. Not even a greeting. Tifa Lockhart frowned at him.

"You know, some people knock, some people politely ask if they can come in, some people greet their hosts, but no one does _none_ of those things."

"Then call me no one," Vincent said, "I'm not a very social person, so my apologies if I don't possess the best ettiquete. By now you've probably surmised that the nature of my visit is something very serious."

Tifa stiffened. "Well, what is it, then?"

Vincent looked at her with something that resembled pity. "Cloud's not with us anymore." Her eyes widened in shock. He had expected she wouldn't take the news well.

"W-What? How do you know? I thought he didn't keep in touch with anybody.."

"I know," Vincent interrupted her, before she could get worked up, "Because me and Cloud are the final individuals on this planet with Genova cells. I can sense them. But about an hour ago, I felt something odd...there were less Genova cells on the planet than before, as if a few of them had just disappeared."

Tifa pounded the wall, and it dust came out from it as it crumbled a bit. "But that doesn't mean Cloud is...dead, right?"

"I see no other alternative, but there's something about his life forces disappearing I find odd." said Vincent.

Tifa looked up, trying to keep tears from leaving her eyes. "What is it?"

Vincent shifted uneasily; he knew this would be hard to explain. He looked at his golden claw as he explained, "When someone I know dies, I can...feel it. Their life forces, returning to the Lifestream. But with Cloud, there was no reunion with the Lifestream. It's as if he had just dropped off the face of the earth."

Tifa looked at him. "What does it mean?"

He shrugged. "I wish I knew. I can tell you this, though; although Cloud is no longer in this world, I highly doubt he is dead."

Tifa looked at him, hope in her eyes now. "So why did you come to me?"

Vincent lifted a curtain to make sure no one was watching them. "I know you and Cloud have a...past..."

Tifa blushed and looked away. "N-no...it's not like that..."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me," Vincent said as he turned to walk out the door, "Believe me, I have no interest in what..."

Tifa looked up at him. "Vincent!" she yelled as she ran toward him. Vincent was, for lack of a better term, fading away. He looked at himself, his body fading in and out of focus, out of _existence, _and yelled out, his blood-red eyes showing, for the first time, fear.

"Tifa, stay back!" But it was too late. She took his hand, and they both faded away, into the dark.

The first thing Tifa realized when she woke up was that she was on a beach. A _beach,_ of all places...she looked around and saw Vincent, who had been watching over her silently.

"Good, you're awake," he said quietly.

"Vincent, what's happened? Where are we?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, but I know this: like Cloud, we have left our world. There is no Lifestream here. No Genova. You'll find that materia no longer works."

He looked out at the ocean. "I awoke not long before you did, and I was about to go scout out the area. Do you want to come?" Tifa nodded, and got up. If she wasn't so afraid, Tifa might have liked this place; a gentle wind caressed her cheek, and the ocean sparkled in the sun. They had only gone about half a mile when they found a small...

Tifa didn't know what to call it. It looked like it was meant to be a small village at some point; there was a couple of shacks. But it seemed that the makers of this 'village' had started, looked at it, then said "screw it" and walked away. There was a small wooden ramp sprawling around a giant tree, leading to a ladder. Tifa saw a pier with a few wooden boats in the distance. To her right she could see a small, sparkling waterfall. A boy approached her. The boy, Tifa noticed, was probably about 14, 15 at the most. He had brown spiky hair, and bright blue eyes, eyes that seemed to say, "Hi, nice to meet you." He was dressed in a weird suit; it was a mixture of black, red and yellow and had straps all over it, and about a million pockets. But probably his strangest feature was what Tifa guessed was his weapon. A giant key.

They boy came up to them and said, "Hi, nice to meet you. My name's Sora."

**As always, tell me what you guys think, thanks for reading! **


	3. Becoming Aware of Each Other

Cloud looked around. He had to admit, his room was sweet. He usually didn't care one way or the other, but this room was amazing. Apparently, being a SeeD gave him priority over the cadets, so he was given a spacious dorm room. Not to mention the credit card with the massive salary he got. Being a SeeD pays...

After lying in bed for a few minutes, thinking about when he would see home again, he decided to take a look around. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his sword, and walked out into the hall. He noticed that although there were a lot of SeeDs, most of the inhabitants of Balamb Garden were small children. _Learning to fight and kill at this age,_ he thought to himself, _some life...reminds me too much of SOLDIER..._

"Hey, you!" Cloud was getting really tired of being called like this; weren't people in this world polite?

A blond man in a grey trench coat walked up to Cloud, two odd-looking characters in tow. Cloud raised an eyebrow. A girl with white hair and an eye patch, and a brown-skinned man carrying around an oversized staff, how very unusual...

"Didn't you hear the bell?" asked their leader, the blond man. Cloud noticed he was wielding a strange weapon; something that looked like a cross between a handgun and a sword more than anything.

"Sorry," Cloud said, "I'm new here." He turned to walk away; he didn't have time for such nonsense. The blond put his arm on Cloud's shoulder.

"INTRODUCTIONS!" yelled the girl.

"Oh yeah," said the brown-skinned man, "Name's Raijin, this" he nodded to the girl, "is Fujin, and that's Seifer. We're the Balamb Disciplinary Committee, y'know?"

Seifer smirked. "That's right, and we deal with disiplinary problems", he looked at Cloud, "such as yourself."

A female voice called out, "Leave him alone Seifer, didn't you hear him?"

Two people walked up to Seifer and his cronies, the first being the girl that had spoken. She had brown hair, light green eyes, and oversized nunchaku, and she wore a short yellow dress. Her comrade was a man, significantly taller than her, with long brown hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes. He wearing a cowboy hat, a brown jacket and jeans, and sporting a silver gun that shined in the light.

Seifer scowled at them. "Look, messenger girl, you and the cowboy can't tell me what to do, Squall hired us and-"

"You're nothing more than a security guard with a gunblade," interrupted the 'messenger girl', "And now, just because 'business' is slow, you're going to take it out on a SeeD?"

"Not very smart Seifer, considering you never became a SeeD yourself." the cowboy finished for her. Seifer looked at them angrily and shoved past Cloud, and muttered, "Better watch it, spiky, you got lucky this time..." Raijin and Fujin followed him out of sight.

"Thanks." said Cloud.

"No problem! Seifer's always being obnoxious, so we're glad to help out! I'm Selphie Tilmitt, by the way, and this is Irvine Kinneas." The girl said, extending a hand.

Cloud shook it grudgingly; the girl seemed a little too energetic for his liking.

He then shook Irvine's hand, and Irvine said, "Nice to meet you, but me and Sefie have urgent business, so let's get going." He turned to Selphie.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! We'd better hurry if we're going to make it to the meeting, Squall told us not to be late!" Selphie said, and she ran off towards the elevator.

"H-hey, Sefie..!" Irvine ran after her, and he shouted at Cloud, "Watch yourself around Seifer, he's not going to forget this event easily!"

Cloud scoffed. Please...that Seifer guy and his cronies struck him as unprofessional fools.

A thought occurred to him. There was going to be a meeting, huh? And Squall...wasn't that the headmaster? Thinking it might be important, Cloud took the elevator to the third floor.

He ran down the small hallway and tried the door, but it was locked. He looked around. _There has to be some way in..._

He noticed that the door didn't reach the ceiling; he could see the ceiling of the next room. His first thought was to put his sword through the door and climb from that...but that would be a little too conspicuous...he opted to climb up a banner adorning the door, and to hang from the side of it as he listened in. Not the best plan, but it was worth a shot. He strained his ears to listen, and heard Zell say "...The hell?"

"Squall, are you sure that's possible?" asked a voice. Cloud craned his neck to see who had spoken; he hadn't heard this voice before, it was probably the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. He was disappointed; he could only make out the back of her head, jet-black hair with red highlights.

"No doubt it's possible, Rinoa," said another unfamiliar voice, this one coming from a blond girl with rimmed glasses, "But I doubt it can be done, even by the most powerful Sorceress..."

"But it has," Squall said, "And it's going to keep happening, unless we can find out what caused it."

Irvine interjected, "But, I got a question, isn't Rinoa, like, the only Sorceress in existence right now? So it can't be a Sorceress."

Squall frowned. "That's what's hard to explain." He laid out a bunch of newspapers, most with a large picture of...Cloud had to look again, it couldn't be...

It was the Meteor, enveloped in the same vortex Cloud had seen surrounding the Garden. "Rifts like this have been opening all over the world, and it's not just a mirage, like it appears to be. Objects and even people are coming from these rifts. These are the people that have been confirmed to have come to our planet from these rifts." He laid out a few pictures, and Cloud was shocked to see Yuffie, Barret and Cid's faces looking up at him from the pictures.

"Could it be some form of time compression?" asked Zell.

"Not even," replied Squall, "These people seem to be from another _world, _not another time. However, they haven't let us know much; they've escaped our best SeeDs and gone into hiding. My guess is that they're as confused by what's happening as we are."

Quistis looked away. "Those poor people. Where could they be from?" she asked.

Squall looked at the pictures, confusion etched in his face. "One of them said something...'Wutai'..."

"Only Yuffie is from Wutai. The planet itself is called Gaia." Cloud interjected, as everyone looked up at where he was, startled. He jumped down from his hiding place and went on, "Don't worry; they're not your enemies. Neither am I, by the way." He said as everyone took out their weapons.

Squall looked at him suspiciously. "Why should we trust you?" he asked.

Cloud looked at all of them. "I guess you can't… but I'm the only lead you've got. Besides..." he looked at the sky, thinking of Tifa… and realizing she hadn't been among the pictures. "I want to go home."

**Destiny Islands**

Sora looked at the two new arrivals. They had to be new, he had never seen them before, but they seemed way too old to be playing on the island. "So, what are you guys doing here?" he asked them. Vincent looked at the boy.

He seemed like no threat, so Vincent replied, "I'm not sure myself. We're not exactly from this world, you see."

Sora's face fell a little. "Y-you're not? But I thought that it was impossible to move between worlds anymore..."

Tifa frowned. What was this kid talking about?

"Sora, what are you doing? I thought we were meeting Kairi..." A grey-haired boy walked up to them. "Who are you?" he asked Vincent and Tifa. Sora looked at Riku.

"They say they're from another world." Sora explained.

Riku shook his head. "That's not possible."

"You seem to have experience in these matters. The question is, how?" asked Vincent. Sora and Riku exchanged glances.

"Well, it's a long story..." Sora began...

**A/N: I had this chapter lying around so I decided to post it, I'll continue the story as soon as it gets a review, so R&R please, comments and criticisms welcome. **


	4. Heroes of the Past

**A/N: Back in action! Here's the fourth chapter of Galactic Clash. Enjoy!**

Squall let out a frustrated sigh as he sliced through another Grat. He made a mental note to himself to stock the training center with some new monsters- the Grats were really getting boring to fight. He'd look into it in the morning. Maybe he could even get a couple more T-Rexaurs inside, although some of the younger cadets probably wouldn't appreciate that.

"Having a good workout?" a voice called out behind him.

Squall turned around to face Quistis, who was walking up to him, lazily swinging her chain whip around in her hand.

"Hey Quistis. It's been okay. Kind of boring though. How possible would it be to get some new monsters in here?" Squall asked, slinging his gunblade over his shoulder.

"You know, I have no idea," Quistis said thoughtfully, "I'll check and let you know." She looked Squall over, and squinted. "Are you okay?"

Squall looked away. "I've got a lot on my mind."

Quistis laughed. "Oh no. That sounds too much like the old Squall for my liking."

Squall scoffed and smiled slightly. "Sorry. Have you heard back from Zell?"

After the meeting Squall and the others had with Cloud earlier, they had agreed to send Zell, Irvine, and Cloud on the Ragnarok to look for Cloud's comrades. They had left a bit later that afternoon.

Quistis shook her head. "Not a thing. Squall… what do you think is going on?"

Squall sat down on a boulder. "Hard to say. I plan to visit Edea and ask her if there are different kinds of compression, not just time."

"You mean… like space compression?" Quistis asked, stroking a strand of blond hair back behind her ear.

"Yeah. I mean first I want to know if there is such a thing. If there is, how could one go about using it?" Squall said, looking down at his black gloves. "There are so many questions. I don't know where to start looking for the answers."

Quistis walked up to Squall and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You're tired, Squall," she said, smiling at him. "It's been one of those days. You should go home and be with Rinoa. We'll tackle this problem again in the morning."

"Yeah you're probably right," Squall said, getting up and starting to head for the exit. "Will you be staying here?"

"Of course! Don't worry about me Squall, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself," Quistis replied.

"I have no doubts about that," Squall closed his eyes and smiled as he walked away. "Goodnight, Quistis."

**At Squall's House**

Squall quietly opened the door to his small house and walked inside. He and Rinoa had gotten a nice little house on the outskirts of Balamb, thanks to a tip from Ma Dincht. It was only a ten minute ride from there to Garden.

Since it was so late at night, Squall assumed Rinoa had already fallen asleep, so he did his best to sneak into the bedroom without waking her. But to his surprise, the bed was empty. He walked back out into the living room and turned on the lights. He ran into the other rooms, then outside, and then back to Garden.

But Rinoa was nowhere to be found.

**Elsewhere**

Aqua jumped out of the way of the long katana. She gripped her keyblade in her hand and tried to stay calm. The power she felt coming from the man in front of her was monstrous.

"I don't… I don't want to fight." Aqua said, jumping back. She had thought she had finally found a way out of the darkness when she arrived in this world. But no matter where she went, the darkness always showed up to fight her. This time, it was in the form of the white-haired man with the katana.

"That's too bad," the man answered, black wings sprouting out from his back, "I have specific instructions to eliminate anyone wielding a giant key."

"W-what?" Aqua parried another attack and rolled out of the way. "Who…?"

"Nothing you need concern yourself with," he answered back as he swung his mighty sword down again. Aqua blocked and reflected his attacks as best she could, but her opponent's sword was way too long for her to get in a shot back. She wouldn't be able to win like this. He was fast and powerful, and she was still rusty after being trapped in the darkness for so long.

_What are you thinking? _Aqua said to herself as she cart wheeled backwards. She held up her keyblade and scowled. _You're a keyblade master. Now act like it. _

"Your face has changed," the white-haired man observed, "Are you finally going to give me a challenge?"

"That's the plan," Aqua muttered, as she shot off three Fire spells. Her enemy dodged the balls of flame easily, as she predicted. She quickly hurled her keyblade at the man's torso. Her Master Keeper spun in a rapid spiral, its light grey guard glaring in the sunlight. The man deflected the blade effortlessly, and it went flying into the air.

"Throwing your weapon away? Big mistake-" the man exclaimed, as Aqua ran at him bare-handed.

Suddenly, the keyblade above his head disappeared, and reappeared in Aqua's hand, as she jumped over the man's outstretched katana and swung her keyblade down. The man quickly teleported away and Aqua hit the ground. As she rolled back up she saw him appear a few yards to the side of her. The front of his chest had a thin wound running across where Aqua's keyblade had grazed him.

"Not bad. But you're going to have to do much better," he said as he closed his left hand into a fist and pointed it at Aqua. Huge dark orbs surrounded her, and the man rushed at Aqua, swinging his katana at her.

She threw her keyblade up and blocked his katana, but his strike managed to push her a few feet back. Then the dark orbs swooped in and exploded around Aqua, leaving a huge cloud of dust. Aqua flew out of the cloud, hitting the canyon wall behind her with a groan. She slowly got up, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. She was bruised, but still able to fight.

"I see," the man remarked, as he saw the orb of light around Aqua shatter and dissipate, "you used Reflect at the last second to block most of the attack."

Aqua clenched her teeth as the man held his sword up in front of his face. She threw her keyblade at him again, but this time he anticipated it, and teleported away. He reappeared right in front of her.

"It's over," he said, staring her in the eyes as he thrust his sword towards her.

Suddenly, a giant harpoon smashed into his side and sent him flying. Aqua's eyes widened in surprise and she quickly summoned her keyblade back into her hand. A large man with a blue bandanna wrapped around his head and a scar on his face ran up to the harpoon on the ground and grabbed it.

"And just who are you?" Aqua's white-haired attacker asked, getting up and brushing some debris off his right shoulder, which had taken most of the hit. He flew at the man with the harpoon and swung his katana, but it was blocked by a dark-skinned man, who held a katal in each hand.

"His name's Ward. Mine's Kiros. Can I ask who we'll have the pleasure of defeating?" the man asked drily.

The white-haired man smirked and jumped back. Ward lifted his harpoon up over his shoulders and Kiros took a defensive stance.

"You shouldn't have gotten involved in something that doesn't concern you. But since you apparently want to die so badly, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. I'm Sephiroth." The man explained, as he lifted his oversized katana and prepared to attack again.

Ward ran at Sephiroth, parrying the swordsman's attacks with his harpoon, while Kiros ran towards Aqua.

"Are you alright?" Kiros asked, offering a hand to Aqua. She nodded, and he helped her up. She hadn't even noticed it, but her legs had given way under her after she thought she was going to be killed by Sephiroth.

"We'll have to move quickly," Kiros said, grabbing Aqua's arm and pulling her behind him, "this area's about to become quite dangerous."

"What… what do you-" Aqua's voice faded as she saw Sephiroth send Ward flying.

"Pathetic. What do you hope to accomplish by facing me alone?" Sephiroth asked him. Ward glared at him and then starting running away from him, towards where Kiros and Aqua were.

"Can't you see it in his eyes?" Kiros shouted at Sephiroth. "He's saying he hoped to distract you. And he did."

A grenade suddenly exploded next to Sephiroth, followed by a few more around him.

"What-" Suddenly, the sound of machine gun fire filled the air, and bullets and grenades rained down around Sephiroth. Aqua saw the source: a man with long black hair and a blue jacket, swinging on a rope he had tethered to a nearby cliff edge.

The man snapped off the rope and jumped down in front of Sephiroth, who was panting a bit, but still looked generally uninjured.

"Sorry man!" Laguna exclaimed as he pointed his gun at Sephiroth, "But the lady doesn't seem to like you very much."

Sephiroth lifted his blade and pointed it at Laguna, ready to fight, when suddenly a dark portal appeared behind him. Sephiroth frowned as he looked back at it, and then faced Aqua. "It looks like destroying you will have to wait, keyblade bearer."

Aqua only glared at Sephiroth as he retreated into the portal, which quickly closed.

"Yeesh, you sure got lucky we were here, lady- that guy seemed pretty tough," Laguna said, turning to face Aqua for the first time, "No need for thanks th-" his eyes widened as he saw her, and suddenly he went down on one knee, clutching his left leg.

"Are- are you okay?" Aqua asked, concerned. She ran up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Did you get injured during your attack?"

"N-n-o…" Laguna groaned out, clenching his teeth, "It's j-just… my leg cramped up…"

"Oh boy, here we go," Kiros put a hand to his forehead, exasperated. Ward put a shoulder on his harpoon, shaking his head. Kiros walked up to Aqua and Laguna.

"Thank you, all of you, for helping me out," Aqua said, "I'm Aqua."

"It's nice to meet you," Kiros said, shaking her hand, "Do you have any idea why that guy was after you?"

"Not a clue," she said, looking down and suddenly clutching her stomach. "Ughh."

"You're injured. Why don't we help you get to the city? I'm sure we can get you healed up there." Kiros offered. Ward walked up behind him, and nodded.

"Alright, but… where is there a city around here?" Aqua asked, looking around. There was nothing around them but tall canyons.

"A-about a f-few miles north of h-here," Laguna stammered, obviously still cramping, "It's c-called Midgar."

Aqua nodded, and the four started walking north. Laguna hopped on one foot, with one arm slung around Ward's shoulder.


End file.
